Baby 7 months on Tuesday - constantly waking through the night for over a week

[LML40]

Hi,

So, my LO has never been a great sleeper, but there was a stage where he was only waking up 2 times in the night (he's breast fed). For the past week he goes down at 7:30/8 for 3 hours or so and then he's up every hour and sometimes just 20 mins. I've started to introduce food, but just for fun tastes and he doesn't seem to have any problems when it comes to poo's etc. He's very regular!

He's 7 months on Tuesday - is there some kind of regression? He's been putting everything in his mouth for as long as I can remember so was thinking maybe it's getting worse now and it's his gums/teeth?

I feed him before bed each night, but he doesn't fall asleep when doing that now, but I do have to soothe him. He goes down for naps fine and doesn't fight, but I do have to put lullaby's on and rock him a little before he goes down. Maybe I'm doing everything wrong!!!

He's not too cold or too hot either.

I'm absolutely exhausted and just yesterday my dad was diagnosed with cancer for the 2nd time so everything as it is has become so overwhelming and with no sleep it's worse than ever.

Any advice would be great!

@LML40 it is scary when they start moving around in the bed isn't it! I think that's part of why I was so concerned in the hotel as the beds are so high.

I've just put her down next to me in bed...will see how long she lasts before she starts fidgeting. I've kept her feet on me so perhaps that will make her think I'm still holding her - who even knows at this point!!

I find it so crazy when I read threads on here about babies sleeping through without any issues from early on!!

Also in relation to the naps it sounds like baby is following the 2,3,4 routine?

I find the same that DD will need a nap quite early on (about 2/3h) after she wakes up but then throughout the day the wake windows increase.

@LML40 yes I know what you mean about the closeness. It's funny how you just naturally sort of do things. I had a flashback to me getting right up close to her and breathing deeply pretending to be asleep to try and get her to fall asleep haha.

On some occasions it actually worked though. So maybe if I was consistent back then I wouldn't be here now!!

@Tee20x

It really is! I was in such a deep sleep initially and then I was like 'mmm maybe I shouldn't be doing this'

Eeek! Good luck. That's actually not a bad idea. If that works you could just slowly slowly move away like that when in cot.

I see so much about babies sleeping through. It makes me feel like I'm doing it all wrong, but I know that's not the case although there is always doubt in my mind. I think that maybe I should've done things differently when he was newborn etc. my head is alway scrambled about it.

Oh what's the 2,3,4 routine?

@Tee20x

I seem to have forgotten so much! Like the first 3 months I don't know what I did! What I do know is, I should've chilled and napped a lot more as he would sleep for ages sometimes, like 4 hour naps.

😂😂😂

@LML40 I think it's just pot luck really & the fact that sleep is such a dealbreaker in terms of how you feel about everything! I'm sure there are things are little ones are amazing at that others wish for too aha.

It's really simple - I think it's more for when they transition to 2 naps though but it's just the wake windows.

So baby will be up for 2 hours after they wake up for the day, then have a nap, then up for 3 hours then have another nap & then up for 4 hours before bedtime.

P.S - she's still sleeping!! Hope I'm not jinxing myself here. She's due to start stirring soon though as even when I hold her she starts rousing after around 40mins-an hour after she first goes down.

@LML40 So, last night after I put baby down next to me, I didn't have to pick her back up! Woohoo. She stirred once or twice but stayed asleep. Ended up sleeping 9-9 and I think she only woke up once or twice.

Tonight she fell asleep and I was holding her but want to break out of this routine so put her down once I was certain she was fully asleep. She briefly opened her eyes but I just started feeding her to try and her to go back to sleep. Hopefully it works!

In due time I'll try and put her down earlier and earlier and edge away from her. As at the moment she's still basically under my armpit and her legs are on mine!!

@Tee20x that's absolutely brilliant!!

I bet you feel like a new woman??

I think she will definitely be ok if you just do what you've said and edge slowly away! All in good time.

My LO went down at 6:45 as that meant he would've been up for nearly 3.5 hours and I couldn't stretch it out anymore based on his naps. He went down for 3 hours then was pretty much up every hour! In the end he came in with me as I was so tired. I'm hoping it's this regression/progression stage!

I missed the call with the sleep coach as I thought it was today! My brain has died. I've got another app next week. I'm so annoyed! Ha

Xx

@LML40 oh no!! That's so annoying. Good thing that you got another appointment, did you have to pay again??

What I've noticed is that DD will roll into me to make sure I'm still there & if I'm not she will fully roll over and then wake herself up.

Sorry to hear about little ones sleep. Hope your day isn't too busy :(

Got an email from the delivery people and the cot should be coming today. Hooray!

@LML40 cot has arrived and it's absolutely gigantic. Looking around the room trying to work out how to configure it to fit everything in!! My fault really as clearly I have some issues with spatial awareness and thought it ought to fit but didn't actually measure the space.

Also it's a cot bed so obviously bigger than a cot. I say obviously now - but that must have slipped my mind when ordering it in my sleep deprived state.

Wondering whether to even bother putting it together or to just send it back & get a "mini" or something a lot smaller. One of my friends says I might as well keep it instead of wasting money sending back as it converts into a normal toddler bed and I will need it at some point. But the space!!!!!

There will be basically no floor space in my room - between my bed, that bloody cot & the wardrobe that takes up one whole wall.

Ugh.

Need to move ASAP as this is beyond a joke!!

@Tee20x

Oh no!

Ok, so do you think it will stress you out if you put it up? Because if you think it's too much then don't do it. You're trying to focus on something to make life a little easier.

If you can navigate and you don't think it will be an issue once you start to settle her in, then do it.

I'd sleep on it.

X

@LML40 yep - remains in the hallway for now! I have until early December to return so will give it some thought and see what happens.

I think I'll rejig the room too to see if it will fit nicely where I have in mind & then if it looks alright build it up.

Hello,

Just wondered how everyone was getting on? @LML40 did you have your consultation with Lucy? How was it? We’re booked in for one in a couple of weeks. But to be honest things are so bad at the minute we’re tempted to cancel the 30 min chat and book in for a full package with her in the new year!! Not sure what to do.

Baby girl is waking every 30mins to an hour. Can be resettled by dad, then I’ll feed when she won’t settle. Been in her own room a few weeks now and was manageable at first. Used to getting up A LOT in the night and to be honest it was just so nice to stick the tv on in our bedroom for half hour and feel like we were winding down a bit after she’d gone to bed. It still is and that’s why we’re reluctant to bring her back in our room. She always woke frequently then anyway so not sure it would make any bloody difference!

We had one weird night last week where she woke once!! ONCE!!! Around 2am. Then roused again at 5am and co-slept with dad til 7am. No idea why and hasn’t happened since!

I’m just rambling and not really looking for answers. Think I just needed a moan to a group of mums who understand how tough it is to have so many wake ups! Me and OH are at breaking point this week but doesn’t help that we’ve both got an awful cold. I’m so lucky he’s been off a few weeks and has really taken so much weight off me with the night wakings but he’s back at work next week and I’m dreading it.

Hope you’re all ok! Can’t believe it’s Christmas soon. Don’t know about you but I did not think I’d still be in this sleep situation at nearly 8 months!! 🤦‍♀️😂

@MaisieGreenYellow sorry to hear you're having a rough time of it! It's awful isn't it when you're not well yourself and can't even get the rest you need overnight. I'm just getting over a bad cold myself so it must be doing the rounds.

It's not been so bad for me as of late, I think DD has her top teeth coming through so am bracing myself for disturbed sleep though. We are still co-sleeping, the cot issues are still going on. Opened the delivery to finally put it together and they haven't included the screws needed!!! Contacted them and they were meant to be delivered today - they didn't come by but have got a message to say that the item couldn't be delivered as they couldn't access the address - lying little fuckers. So the cot remains unassembled in the hallway. It's like the higher powers are telling me to keep co-sleeping it's just problem after problem.

She starts nursery in a month - so I think getting her to sleep alone in the evenings even if just for a few hours will be essential. I don't mind cosleeping during the night so much but it's just having to go to bed at a similar time to her. It's ok for now, as she goes down at about 9ish and I just relax in bed until I'm ready to sleep, but once she starts nursery she will need a much earlier bedtime. I can't exactly go to bed at 7pm with her!

Aah can’t believe that about the cot! What a bloody faff. But yes perhaps a sign that co-sleeping should stick for a while 😂 Glad it’s going ok at the moment for you. It’s nice to have some moments of calm and hope isn’t it.

Ohh that’s exciting about nursery. Lots of changes but maybe might exhaust her and she’ll be flat out every night for you 😂 who knows how these things are going to go! With regards to her bedtime - one of the breast consultants I follow on Instagram posted a story about her own kids and what time they go to bed - think it was her 5 year old, she said 10pm but she said we tell his teacher it’s 7pm because that’s what they get told they should do at school. But she said he’s always just been a low sleep need kid and trying to get him to sleep earlier is just stressful and unnecessary. Made me laugh but also makes you think. Not all babies will go to sleep at the 7-8pm slot. And that’s ok. Hopefully it won’t be too stressful for you.

Our baby has learnt how to crawl and fumble around in her cot now and lots more wakes ups where she’s just faffing about and trying to get herself out of it!! 🤦‍♀️ Co-sleeping doesn’t even feel that safe anymore, now she’s on the move.

@MaisieGreenYellow @Tee20x

So sorry for the delayed reply! It's been absolutely crazy and I'm exhausted. He woke up last night and was awake for 2 hours, I finally got him back to sleep and put him in our bed whilst my partner went and slept in other room. He was absolutely out for the count and where I was so exhausted j didn't cushion around the bed and at 4:40 this morning he fell out of bed. I am absolutely devastated! He cried for about 10 seconds and then went back to sleep until 7:15 but has a big bruise on his head 😞.

He's been so out of sorts for so long and I don't know what it is.

I did speak to Lucy and she was very helpful, but I'm going to have another follow up call as I didn't write anything down and LO was up, so I couldn't focus properly. Two main points were that if he wakes and he's not crying, just let him play around in cot as he may go back to sleep himself and the other was the nap drop - she thinks he's probably due to drop down to 2 naps soon. I just don't know as it's kind of naturally happened with the 4 to 3, but this 3 to 2 I don't know hence why I'm going to have another session with her. I would book a package, but she's fully booked until end of July 😞!

How are you both??? Are you coping ok? How is everything?!!
Xxx

@LML40 oh poor baby! Mine has been tumbling a lot recently too and has had a few knocks to the head lol

Interesting advice from Lucy. I think the leaving them to play does work - I've done this myself, literally shut my eyes to ignore & she's just gone back to sleep on her own when she's done babbling.

It could well be that he is going to drop down to 2 naps. Mine dropped down to 2 at about 7/8 months - happened naturally. 3rd nap was just getting pushed back later and later and sometimes she'd just refuse. So I think it can happen earlier than you might expect.

Cot is finally up now, just need to get some sheets and a sleeping bag for her & then will see how it goes.

She's being awful at the moment though feels like I'm constantly waking up in the night to her fidgeting and crying. Not sure what the issue is but I reckon she may have some more teeth coming through which might explain things.

@LML40 glad it was ok with Lucy. We’re booked in next Friday for a call. Yes I can’t believe how busy she is but she recently said to us that her next available slots for the full package is February? But we felt even that was too far away and wanted some help sooner. So we’ll see how it goes!

Oh my god bless him! Hope he’s ok. It’s easy done. Mine is rolling around and crawling about now. It’s scary 😧 we’ve had a few bumps to the head as well.

Sleep feels worse than ever! Every hour, sometimes more at the minute. We think she’s teething so let’s hope we get another tooth through soon and sleep calms down a bit.

Sorry I know you’ve probably already said this in previous posts but what age are your babies and what are their naps looking like at the minute? Interesting Lucy said about dropping one, we keep saying maybe we need to but not sure how we’d do it.

Mine is nearly 8mo. She has 3 naps, but annoyingly tends to only do 30 mins for her first two naps of the day (even when contact napping) and then the last nap she’s so knackered she could go for a ages but we cap it at latest 4.45 so we can still put her to bed by 8ish. But she never wants to wake from that nap, I feel awful. It’s like she needs the other naps to be longer and just a cat nap for the last one! Easier said than done

We've had another topple over today. I don't know what's going on with her at the moment seems to constantly be falling over.

@MaisieGreenYellow Mine is 11 months & is on 2 naps a day. Both of them are around 1.5 hours long but range between 1-2 hours generally.

We're on a late schedule. At the moment it seems to have gone back to 9am-9pm.

First nap is normally around 11.30am second nap is around 4pm which goes against the grain because that's normally when most people cap. But I find that sleeping that late just tides her over for a 9pm bedtime.

Need to start shifting this forwards though as she starts nursery soon so I think I'm going to start aiming for a 7.30-8pm schedule.

As for dropping the nap - I think I said in a previous post this was around 7/8 months. She was starting to resist the nap and wouldn't go down for it until late - I'm talking like 6pm. In the end I just said nope too close to bedtime & too much work to actually get her to sleep so cut the nap altogether. I think I noticed that pattern for like a week or two before I dropped it.

@MaisieGreenYellow

You really will benefit from that call. I actually sent her Louie's sleep pattern from my huckleberry app and so she made an initial assessment based on that, so not sure if that would also be an idea for you?

Apart from a nice bruise on his head, he seems fine! Thank god.

It definitely sounds like teething to me, but i think Lucy will be more helpful when it comes to that.

My LO was 9 months on Tuesday and like you, the majority of his naps are 30 mins, so when he's waking up at 6 it's going to be a struggle dropping to 2 as he will be far too overtired. He's on his 2nd nap now which means my attempt at 2 naps today is well and truly out of the window, although I have stretched out awake time based on 2 naps so far.

Have you tried seeing what happens if you don't cap?

@Tee20x

Oh bless 😞

It seems like it's easier for 2 naps with you as your LO has longer ones. Do you think it's ok that I keep him awake like that if he's only doing 30?

My LO has often napped for 30 mins at 4 and sometimes an hour and it's not really made any difference to his sleep so far 🤞🏻.

The new schedule sounds like a plan. It may work once she's in the cot maybe? How does it all fit? Ok?

He's just woken up from a nap (30 mins) but when I picked him up and rocked him a bit, he went back to sleep on me. I'm now laying on the sofa with bubba and a mince pie. Bliss. Ha xx

@LML40 yay for mince pies!! I'm currently under baby and blanket too having a breather. Been tidying and sorting out her clothes and toys all morning & have a massive bag to sell/give away.

I've put the cot at the end of my bed so it fits in quite nicely - hopefully we won't have to stay here for too long as it's really quite cramped.

I'm no expert but I think it just depends on the baby - have you ever seen how long he can stay awake for or does he naturally want to start going down at a certain time? He may just be a short napper - nothing wrong with that!

With mine, she can go quite a long time with out a nap. Yesterday I had some errands to run so she missed her morning nap and was awake from 9am-3pm. Could see she was getting a bit tired but she wasn't grizzling or anything and it made no difference to her night time sleep. Don't think I'll be dropping down to one nap just yet but it's good to know that she won't be a grump without that nap every so often.

I think you just have to play around with the naps and see what works for you.

@Tee20x I'm now on my 2nd! 🐷

Awww ♥️😍. It's a miserable day too isn't it?

I sold soooo much stuff on vinted. I basically did a bundle, so it had newborn to 6 month clothes, bouncer, mat and gym, baby carrier and baby bath. I got £200.

Oh that's good. Are you still looking at places?

I might try that actually and see how he goes 🤞🏻🙏🏻. I think today will be hard to try, but will do tomorrow.

@LML40 I have a few nice sets that I was thinking of selling as the set but then also doing a bundle of random mixes, leggings, tops etc. I just need them gone even if I only get a fiver for a bag of clothes!! I also have a bouncer and stuff to get rid of but how does that work with the postage and stuff?

Jealous of the mince pies :( I'm all out - I may have to brave the outdoors to get some but it's absolutely freezing. I've also seen that sainsburys are doing baileys for £10 so I'm even more tempted...

Yes give it a go whenever you feel ready! As for me - I need to get to ordering the sheets for the cot and get a move on with that. I really don't want the tears though :(

I tried to sell some lovely sets, but I got more money doing as a bulk as people just won't pay, plus I just found it easier to do in one hit.

Did you get your Baileys and mince pies. I'm still breast feeding, so it's the occasional glass or two of wine for me atm!

Did you order sheets?

LO is waking every 2/3 hours still. I'm going to send screen shots again to Lucy and book another appointment as I just can't see how I can drop a nap due to them being like cat naps. I'm just clueless whether he is overtired or under tired.

Im super anxious about nursery too even though it's 4 months away. Does this worry and questioning ever end? Xx

@LML40 yeah I've ordered some sheets and sleeping bags just waiting for them to be delivered now seems to be taking ages.

Didn't manage to get the baileys or mince pies - when I last went out I forgot them!! So annoying.

Been trying to put the baby down for her nap for the best part of an hour but she's just been babbling to herself in my arms with her eyes closed for ages. She's rubbing her eyes and is defo tired which is why it's so annoying!!

I've emptied out her cot (it became a dumping site for clean laundry) and have put her in it. Just had a peep through the crack of the door and she's just standing up in it - been there for about 10 mins and no crying, but no sleeping either. I can't see how she'll ever sleep in it to be honest with you but I was getting so annoyed I just had to give it a try.